Saturday, October 27, 2012

Today is an appropriate day to remember Sylvia Plath. This one line from SP is a personal favourite – Love set you going like a fat gold watch – written in relation to the her first born Frieda (currently the only member of the immediate family still alive) … love, birth, life … all inextricably linked … love set SP going 80 years ago today … applying her words on her birthday.

SP lived in a cloud of mental instability … a question - is the love that actually set SP going related to any spiritual dimension … is that love alive and of influence … and was there such a thing as providence in her life?Where providence equals the wisdom, care, and guidance believed to be provided by God.

As well as poems SP wrote short some stories and ‘The Bell Jar’.

Consider the title short story from ‘Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams’ … dealing with that primal emotion fear … from the last lines of this story …

At the moment when I think I am most lost the face of Jonny Panic appears in a nimbus of arc lights on the ceiling overhead. I am shaken like a leaf in the teeth of glory. His beard is lightning. Lightning is in his eye. His Word charges and illuminates the universe.

The air crackles with his blue-tongued lightning-haloed angels. His love is the twenty-storey leap, the rope at the throat, the knife at the heart.

He forgets not his own.

Note that ‘Word’ starts with a capital and the reverse order of the words ‘forget not’… they give importance and have a religious association … perhaps Johnny Panic takes on the face of God and providence?

It is ‘mental health week’ in Australia … mental illness is a serious concern and more prevalent than widely realised … if you reach that point in depression … that moment when you are most lost I hope you will find a certain light in the darkness from that love that set you first going and is eternal whether seen or unseen.

To end on a positive … here is SP’s poem Balloons … balloons are always associated with happiness, birthdays, and festive occasions … it was one of her last poems written in the month she died. I have included my comments …

Balloons

Since Christmas they have lived with us,Guileless and clear,Oval soul-animals,Taking up half the space,Moving and rubbing on the silk

I like the choice of words – Guileless – without deceit, soul-animals … if they are to be animals because of their positive association then they are indeed soul-animals … more to women than men or am I being sexist. The fact that Christmas balloons are hanging around in February (if you forgive the pun) is interesting … Ted Hughes does say that SP is good at contemplating objects but not re-organising.

Invisible air drifts,Giving a shriek and popWhen attacked, then scooting to rest, barely trembling.Yellow cathead, blue fish ----Such queer moons we live with

Instead of dead furniture!

Straw mats, white walls

When balloons move around they do contain invisible air … an emphasis on an unusual aspect. When attacked and popped they do scoot to rest with a little tremble leaving some interesting shapes perhaps ... cathead and fish in shrivelled rubber … and in definite colour

Moons come and go and just as the balloons have probably been drifting around her flat. She finds them more interesting because of their movement … and the colours in contrast to her drab furniture.

And these travelingGlobes of thin air, red, green,Delighting

The heart like wishes or freePeacocks blessingOld ground with a featherBeaten in starry metals.

As well as moons they are of course globes of thin air in that they are quite fragile … and they do give soul food to the viewer like the forerunner for something nice … just as a wish or finding a peacock’s feather … ‘starry metals’ … the contrast between the much trodden metallic ground with the feather a symbolic star

Your small

Brother is makingHis balloon squeak like a cat.Seeming to seeA funny pink world he might eat on the other side of it,He bites,

Then sitsBack, fat jugContemplating a world clear as water.A redShred in his little fist.

Sylvia Plath Feburary 1963

SP is talking to Freida regarding her brother Nicholas. Nicholas is only interested in testing everything with his mouth … what he can see and understand of the balloon is unknown … but enough to command his attention … note the ‘seemingly’ world seen through the balloon. He is described as a fat jug … babies tend to have a certain fat look and a jug is a receptacle for milk … it is also inanimate object – perhaps in relation to him and the life around him. He certainly doesn’t understand the ‘world of the balloon’ … the clear comparison with water fits nicely with the jug image … and then finally he is left with the remains of the balloon in his hand … it is just a shred – no image of cathead or fish … it is just a shred with no understanding of how this has happened.

In bi-polar terms we could equate the balloon = a ‘high’ …the burst balloon = a ‘low’ … the transformation form one state to another as with the baby a complete mystery.

Today let such thoughts float into the unknown and just look at these guileless balloons as a description of simple family play.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Rosemary
Dobson died on 27 June this year at the age of 92. She was a well -respected
Canberra poet who had known another well-known Canberra poet David Campbell.
They had worked together on poetry and when David Campbell died as a tribute
she wrote twelve poems entitled ‘The Continuance of Poetry’. They are short
pieces that reflect their shared times and an interest in Chinese poetry.

In
relation to this and the ‘continuance of poetry’ Radio National broadcast a
commentary on this work and here is a link to the audio from this session …

In
another language.Note
… poems have a life and like the above interest in the Chinese work of Li Po
poems can spread to distant shores (the translation effects the birth of this new
life, hopefully the seeds land on fertile ground).

8…
At The Coast

The
high wind has stripped the bark from the gum-trees,

Smooth-boled
they follow each other down to the water.

From
rented houses the daughters of professors

Emerge
smooth-limbed in this light summer season.

They
step from behind the trees at the edge of the water

As
smooth as ochre and as cool as lemon.

And
which are girls and which are smooth-limbed saplings?

The
light is trembling on them from the water.

They
glow and flicker in and out of shadow

Like
poetry behind the print on pages.

Note
… David Campbell’s poems drew strength from a landscape association … looking into the landscape we find his
poems (from Rosemary’s final poem in the sequence) … in the above there is
direct personification, person and nature inseparable, … I’m
sure Thomas Hardy would identify with such sentiment.

Poetry
continues … continues to flow … the past will always complete the present in
some form or other and I am sure Rosemary’s work will continue through the
years in many unseen ways.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

China is known for
its wise sayings/proverbs passed down the centuries …

It can’t be
over-stressed that at the time they were written they had to create words that
were memorable and catchy to facilitate dissemination given that word of mouth
(excuse the pun) was the only way to communicate … hence the importance of the
actual words and their association, plus linking to rhyme and song to aid
memory.

Most Chinese proverbs
are based on historical events and the greatest number originates from that
rich period of history, the third century BC, when the first Emperor of China
reigned. He was the sovereign who united China, built the Great Wall, and
created the magnificent tombs with the army of terracotta warriors.

An example … Govern
the country like you would cook a small fish.

My (an)
interpretation … Fish = Wealth … treat the country as though you have little
and therefore respect every element that you have … not wasting any part …
therefore treat (cook) gently and caringly … and in your own house with the
best of your kitchen … adding your own ingredients to enhance flavour
(government).

Recommended reading
for those interested in history connected to words is … A Thousand
Pieces of Gold … this is a memoir of China’s past through its proverbs
by Adeline yen Mah … it was due to this book that Philip
Larkin met Adeline. Larkin described Chinese proverbs as ‘white dwarfs of
literature’ … white dwarfs = tiny stars whose atoms are packed so closely
together that their weight is immense compared to their size … proverbs being
densely compacted with thoughts and ideas. To discover meaning meditation or mulling
on the words is often necessary. Another very important factor is the
translation (translator).

Footnote … Adeline also states that the equivalent to
Shakespeare in China is Sima-Qian (145 – 90BC) a chinese
historian who lived during the Han dynasty. He wrote only one book Shiji
(Historical Record) published after his death and a bestseller since … perhaps
the greatest Chinese book ever written.

This poem reflects
back on three distinct events in the life of the poet. Three highlights and
each event with high emotional content and clearly memorable - to the extent
that words cannot be spoken in any description - and hence the title is clear
... words always fail in trying to communicate to another.

The question is how
much of an essence is conveyed ... and that, of course, depends on the reader
as much as the words themselves.

The three stanzas
could easily be three separate poems in their own right. They conjure up very
different images. It is hard for the reader to switch thought between each
recollection – at least it was for me when I first read this poem.

There are number
links across the stanzas … the prime one being the depth of feeling … but the
moon occurs in each stanza …

The moon is
considered to rule the senses and emotions. It is an archetype for the fickle
and changeable. Furthermore, the moon's phases are often connected with female
attributes. The phases feature references to the Maiden, the Mother, the
Matron, and the Crone … this paragraph taken from Wikipedia.

… each stanza represents an unearthly experience … the
moon has mystery, another world … unknown … just as these personal experiences
will always remain unknown … how can we really describe/share those very
personal happenings in our life!

… the troopship rounding the Cape in moonlight happened
when Edwin was only 21 … so despite going to war the adventure of seeing Africa
from the ship was paramount … the war had yet to make a personal impact … what
an apt world to choose to define Africa (=savage) ... a double meaning in the context of the journey to war … note that the last line of the stanza underlines the title … a
discount to all that he has said

… the second stanza
is later in Edwin’s life … that contrast between the fate of Laika and the precursor
to the future of manned space travel … what an achievement for man, for Laika …
the falling back of the debris is mirrored to the concept of history coming
down … again the last line negates the text … today we take manned space travel
for granted … fortunately no Laika is needed to test procedures … (Promethean =
boldly creative) ... the moon ready to be taken - and in a sense this has happened

… the last stanza …
the first kiss equated to winter morning moon … the sea changing shingle –
never to be the same again … but the last five lines are a change from the
first two stanzas (it is not like that) … now we have the affirmative … We Know
It without being said … We Do It without the need for statement … We Keep It
without vow … it is as though there is something deep inherent in us (unspoken)
… as old as man … and really when it comes down to it is the very core of our
being … the touch of love

… and of course
there is unspoken commonality that can be shared without the need for words